Frost & Sullivan Offers Bullish Cloud Communications Forecast
North American companies continue to shift communications to the cloud at a speed that will make it the preferred communications model by 2024, according to a cloud communications forecast from Frost & Sullivan. The researchers are predicting a compound annual growth rate of 20% for cloud communications between now and then.
Cloud Communications Forecast
Frost & Sullivan notes increased collaboration among technology developers, service providers, which researchers see offering services providers and others the ability to launch feature-rich, reliable and secure hosted internet protocol (IP) telephony. Providers will see more than $17 million in revenue from cloud communications by 2024, according to the Frost & Sullivan forecast.
Researchers recommend that innovative communication service providers target larger companies that have complex IT and communications requirements to take advantage of this opportunity.
“As businesses adapt to an ever-changing competitive environment, they require a trusted partner that can effectively assist them in their business transformation and cloud migration journeys, said Elka Popova, Frost & Sullivan digital transformation vice president, in a prepared statement. “CSPs are responding to this market demand by integrating hosted IP telephony and Unified Communications-as-a-Service with customer care solutions and business workflows.
“By 2030, programmable communications will dramatically change the industry paradigm by transforming communications and collaboration services into core components of critical business solutions,” she added.
Popova noted that the net new annual users of hosted IP telephony and UCaaS are expected to increase from 5.7 million in 2018 to 11.3 million in 2024 as programmable communications help providers tap unexplored customer segments and cross/up-sell to existing customers. But although cloud is poised to become the preferred technology consumption model within the next decade, premises-based systems will co-exist with it for decades, researchers said.